I was wondering what you all thought of Daisy chaining the new 2.0 Hybrid nests? I used to have a brilliant colony of Messor Barbarus, raised from Queen and 15ish workers to a healthy 2-3k at rough estimation. I 3D Printed my own 'Pods' that would just snap onto existing nest sections and by the finish, had around 10 pods in a tower with 5-6 satellite extensions. They lived in the centre of their outworld (an old Aquarium) and used several tubes to navigate to different parts of the said aquarium. Even had two Camera booms with webcams attached to stream their progress haha.

Sadly I came home to find my upstairs neighbour had flooded their kitchen by cursed luck the water ran down one of the boom poles and slowly filled the tank up, I didn't get back for 10-12 hours, by that time it was too late

However I have a new Messor colony in the making, just hit the 50 worker mark and looking very healthy so was thinking of dropping the 'home made' route and going for the new Hybrid nest, adding more as the colony grows, eventually chaining between 4 and 9 together to become a subterranean base on the bottom of the fish tank and cover it over with sand, adding several breathing towers.

Cant wait to see it!!! Sounds like you have a plan so run with it. I have a Crematogaster ashmeadi colony that originally was just the queen and id say around 50 workers (i saved them from being killed) and now they have probabyly reached the 200-300 mark id say and the queen is still producing eggs at a great rate. Doing extremely well and thinking of getting a 2.0 for them. My only problem is I live in Tennessee in the US and its starting to get chilly and i know hibernation is coming up very soon. But yea, sounds great, do it and post pics for sure! Would love to see that for sure

Cant wait to see it!!! Sounds like you have a plan so run with it. I have a Crematogaster ashmeadi colony that originally was just the queen and id say around 50 workers (i saved them from being killed) and now they have probabyly reached the 200-300 mark id say and the queen is still producing eggs at a great rate. Doing extremely well and thinking of getting a 2.0 for them. My only problem is I live in Tennessee in the US and its starting to get chilly and i know hibernation is coming up very soon. But yea, sounds great, do it and post pics for sure! Would love to see that for sure

Thanks, xTNxANTMANx,

I'm currently sitting in the Hibernation period for my Messors but they are still very active. Food and Water is in abundance, Temperature should be triggering Hibernation (should have gone down at least a month ago) But they are well looked after 24/7 so I'm guessing they are either going to hibernate later or not at all this year, I don't want to force trigger any more than I am with the temp drop.

I was wondering what you all thought of Daisy chaining the new 2.0 Hybrid nests? I used to have a brilliant colony of Messor Barbarus, raised from Queen and 15ish workers to a healthy 2-3k at rough estimation. I 3D Printed my own 'Pods' that would just snap onto existing nest sections and by the finish, had around 10 pods in a tower with 5-6 satellite extensions. They lived in the centre of their outworld (an old Aquarium) and used several tubes to navigate to different parts of the said aquarium. Even had two Camera booms with webcams attached to stream their progress haha.

Sadly I came home to find my upstairs neighbour had flooded their kitchen by cursed luck the water ran down one of the boom poles and slowly filled the tank up, I didn't get back for 10-12 hours, by that time it was too late

However I have a new Messor colony in the making, just hit the 50 worker mark and looking very healthy so was thinking of dropping the 'home made' route and going for the new Hybrid nest, adding more as the colony grows, eventually chaining between 4 and 9 together to become a subterranean base on the bottom of the fish tank and cover it over with sand, adding several breathing towers.

How do you guys feel about the theory?

So you would bury the Hybrid Nest(s) under sand? Not sure how that would work as we haven't tested a setup like that. You're more than welcome to test it out though. Daisy chaining the Hybrids is easy enough using poly tubing. Of course in burying them you lose the hydration system they provide as well as the observation window on top of each one.

I was wondering what you all thought of Daisy chaining the new 2.0 Hybrid nests? I used to have a brilliant colony of Messor Barbarus, raised from Queen and 15ish workers to a healthy 2-3k at rough estimation. I 3D Printed my own 'Pods' that would just snap onto existing nest sections and by the finish, had around 10 pods in a tower with 5-6 satellite extensions. They lived in the centre of their outworld (an old Aquarium) and used several tubes to navigate to different parts of the said aquarium. Even had two Camera booms with webcams attached to stream their progress haha.

Sadly I came home to find my upstairs neighbour had flooded their kitchen by cursed luck the water ran down one of the boom poles and slowly filled the tank up, I didn't get back for 10-12 hours, by that time it was too late

However I have a new Messor colony in the making, just hit the 50 worker mark and looking very healthy so was thinking of dropping the 'home made' route and going for the new Hybrid nest, adding more as the colony grows, eventually chaining between 4 and 9 together to become a subterranean base on the bottom of the fish tank and cover it over with sand, adding several breathing towers.

How do you guys feel about the theory?

So you would bury the Hybrid Nest(s) under sand? Not sure how that would work as we haven't tested a setup like that. You're more than welcome to test it out though. Daisy chaining the Hybrids is easy enough using poly tubing. Of course in burying them you lose the hydration system they provide as well as the observation window on top of each one.

I'm going to have 4 connected in the base of the tank waiting for the colony to hit 100-200 before offering them the tank space. Already have a mass hidration solution in the works, if they accept the new space and move in its all good, if not they can use the space as an outworld

I'm going to have 4 connected in the base of the tank waiting for the colony to hit 100-200 before offering them the tank space. Already have a mass hidration solution in the works, if they accept the new space and move in its all good, if not they can use the space as an outworld